Investigation of collapse of complex socio-political systems using classical stability theory

Joseph Livni

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2019, vol. 524, issue C, 553-562

Abstract: Some mighty and prosperous empires of the past collapsed. Explanations why successful civilizations collapsed disagree even about what collapse means. In fields like Physics, Engineering and Biomathematics, collapse is a response of a system in unstable equilibrium to a perturbation. This work applies the mathematical formulation of classical stability theory to study socio-economic collapse. The model illustrates that increasing complexity invariably explains collapse. This finding agrees with other scholars, however the results dispute the need of associated factors like diminishing marginal returns, excessive complexity growth rate or the relationship between frequency of perturbation and their magnitude (references provided). Moreover, in previous works the term complexity envelops a variety of elements. The approach of this work numerically defines complexity. Such a definition allows unambiguously comparing the complexity of various societies.

Keywords: Societal collapse; Social complexity; Equilibrium of complex society; Social stability; Social dynamics; Sustainability; Resiliency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:524:y:2019:i:c:p:553-562

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2019.04.167

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